Aircraft such as tiltrotor helicopters commonly comprise rotor blade erosion protection systems (EPSs), typically heavy metallic rotor abrasion strips wrapped over rotor blade leading edges, for preventing erosion of rotor blades. Such erosion protection is increasingly important when an aircraft is utilized in an environment with significant amounts of easily airborne heavy particulate matter, such as desert sand in desert environments. Current rotor blade EPSs are typically stiff and are bonded to an otherwise flexible rotor blade, thereby undesirably reducing the flexibility of the rotor blade thereby potentially limiting the natural response of the flexible rotor blade. There remains a need for improved EPSs that are lighter, longer lasting, better able to withstand wear, and able to absorb an increased amount of particulate matter impact energy without transferring substantially the entire impact load to already strained portions of the underlying rotor blades.